grabbed these to replace the stock L-cush on the sr325is I bought recently. changed the sound stage quite a bit, but for the better i think... great stuff!!

i was using a smaller cable with 1/8" terminations and 2 adapters. sounded ok. this cable is sturdy and i dont have to use adapters anymore... great stuff!!

Another home run from the charming people at Grado

The SR325i replaced Sony MDR-V6. The Sonys had a nice sound for 20 year old cans and for over 1/2 the price of the Grados I could have replaced them. I’ve heard about the Grado sound and the SR152i are at the top of the "bang for the buck" curve.

I’ve been listening to these for a few hours and I’m am suitably impressed. One of the comments I’ve read was the amount of burn in time these cans required, somewhere around 20 hours. What I have noticed is the bass gets better, tighter, more noticeable. I’m listening to audience recordings on my computer routed thru a 70’s era Pioneer receiver because I don’t have a 1/4 to 1/8" adapter for the E-mu sound card. The only equalization is a high shelf filter with a turn over around 8.5k and 6.5 dB boost due to damaged ears.

Listening to John McLaughlin & Jonas Hellborg recorded live. I’m impressed with speed of the transits on these cans. John McLaughlin’s guitar just snaps when he plucks the string...*snap*. I have a copy of Yoner Mountain String Band recorded in a small bar in Pittsburgh. The thing that stood out in that recording is the roundness of the doghouse bass. There was no doubt this was a wooden acoustical instrument.

The bass is very tight and controlled. These are not for bass heads who want fat, pronounced bass. It’s there and it’s deep but you’re not gonna be beat to death. On high tempo songs you just want to tap your feet, there’s no drag on the bass lines. The midrange is...well....one thing Grados are known for is their clean midrange. McLaughlin’s guitar is just fabulous, the resolution is wonderful, you can hear strings, just not chords. All this listing to FLAC files not WAVs.

Only caveat is these are open backed headphones so sound goes out and sound goes in. If you need isolation, then a closed back headphone is required. As I said, I liked my Sonys, but these do have more air around the instruments as well as the ambiance. When John taps the guitar body, you can hear the sound decay in the room. That’s the beauty of open backed headphones.

The comfort level could be better, but it’s not painful. Part is the heavy cord and part that I’m not used to on the ear phones. The earcups are all foam, which in itself feels odd. Still, these are well worth the buck-fifty I spent. I hope these will be the last cans I have to buy. Some say these aren’t for bass heavy music like dance. I’m listening to a CD copy of Lady Gaga’s "Fame Monster" LP. The bass is deep and clean. I can understand how some would say it’s light in the bottom. They’re definitely not fat sounding. I like the clean lean sound. You get to hear all of the layers in the bass, not a one note beat.

I guess you can say these come highly recommended.